You can learn to become good at celebrating holidays!

You can learn to become good at celebrating holidays!

Daydreaming about your vacation is wonderful, but that often leads to more stress at the start of your vacation than you would like. Develop your talent to enjoy your holiday with some tips to change your preparation and behavior. These tips come from programs and training in which Group Moovs teaches people to plan, prioritize, manage energy and let go. These tips also make a big difference to your holiday preparation.

1. Manage your own expectations. Daydreaming is nice, but dreams are often deceptive and stress, worries or irritations do not disappear on holiday. So manage your expectations. Work on reducing your tension, which will increase your resilience and reduce adversity from affecting your holiday fun.

2. Manage the other person’s expectations. Don’t promise anything you can’t deliver. Clearly tell colleagues what you can still do and what not. Be forthright with your travel companions that you would like to acclimatize for two days at your first location before embarking on the challenging 10-day jungle trek in Cambodia. Don’t promise your children weeks in advance that you will spend the whole day doing fun things with them on vacation. Or tell your adult daughter with two babies who want to visit your holiday destination for a few days that you think it’s a great idea but also know of a nice hotel to stay nearby, so that you can also get some much needed rest.

3. Manage your energy. Work according to a plan for the last few weeks and stick to it. Plan not only the tasks and time it will cost you, but also the energy it requires. Is your planning still realistic or do you actually run out of energy by 1.30 pm? Draw in your energy distribution for the day, so that you don’t use up all your energy and go on holiday exhausted.

4. Stop managing and start letting go. Set yourself realistic goals. Also consciously choose things that you will no longer do in the run-up to your holiday. And, divide the tasks fairly. Don’t plan anything at all on the last day before your departure. Not at work, not at home. Do something that relaxes you, even if you don’t think you have time for it.

5. Don’t do it alone and don’t be afraid to ask for help. 6 weeks before your holiday, go through your agenda with a good colleague and decide together what is still realistic before your holiday and what is not. Then stick to that. Dare to ask for help with everything you need to do and to really relax the last day before your departure. Ask someone to babysit the children for example or to do something fun with you.

Do you want to know how we can help you or your colleagues to stay mentally fit and vital with, for example, an energy management training? In that case get in touch with Sigrid at s.stavenuiter@moovs.nl.